Disclaimer: don't own them, wish I did. Oh but I do own any mysterious characters that I made up.
AN: ok, so I should tell you in general, I have probably been spoiling you with weekly updates. I've had some holiday time off and that's why there was that sudden string of updates coming out. I went review crazy, I liked getting them so I posted. But work is upon me once again and before you know it I will be stressed and swamped, I won't be keeping up with those weekly updates. I will try, with all effort I will try, but I do not have the story written down as far as I would like. Anyway, just saying. Hope you enjoy this chapter. It's a nice look into Katsura's character.
Two Hitokiri – Keeping the Murderer at Bay
"I heard there was an incident with the assignment a few nights past." Katsura asked more than stated as he walked along the compound porch with Kaoru in step.
"Yes." Kaoru responded quietly. "A civilian woman was involved."
"Was she there during?"
Kaoru shook her head, sending locks of raven to fall around her shoulders. "No, just after. She knew though; she knew it was us. It was unavoidable; her death." She answered his unspoken, but pending question.
Katsura was a merciful man. He respected life so much for a man that ordered the end of so many. His actions are a result of the respect he has for future generations. To take lives now is to preserve lives later. Katsura strongly believed that the lives of women and children were the future, and that take their lives was only a step in wrong direction. So he avoided it at all costs and stressed that his men avoided it as well.
He sighed at the thought of a young woman's death. "Was it you?"
"No, it was him."
"It is his first. How did he take it?"
Kaoru hesitated, not sure how to explain Kenshin's progress. "In stride. At first he seemed to take it step by step, letting the idea sink in. He reacted as I would expect anyone to. After that night, he returned to normal. That is to say, pretending it was nothing more than another death. But that's what it is. Pretending."
Katsura nodded and remained silent as they continued to walk together to the courtyard where Kenshin was training the other men.
They stopped to watch as the men fought mock battles with each other. Soon after, Kenshin called their attention to him and asked for a challenge. He wanted to see who thought they had improved enough over the last few weeks that they could fight him and hold their own.
Initially no man stepped forward. There were a few shuffling feet and side glances for many long moments until the group's champion stepped forward, grinning like the dumb fool that he was. "I'll try my hand at the Battousai." Hachiro bellowed in his deep voice.
A ring formed around them as Hachiro crouched into a stance that he was taught would maximize his strengths. He charged at the uninterested hitokiri and swung at his head, but missed as Kenshin side stepped him. His sheathed sword landed a blunt hit on Hachiro's back, sending him to the ground.
"Reaction time is too slow, and moves still too predictable." He said in a low shadowed voice. "I expect that the rest of you to last at least three moves."
A series of battles ensued, all in which Kenshin fought with only a wooden sheath, and his students with actual katanas. No man managed more than three moves, if even.
"Pathetic." Kenshin put two fingers to his head and shook for a bit. "Anyone else?"
Katsura glanced at the petite woman at his side. She had a small smirk on her face and her eyes seemed to dance, but she held this all behind a restrained face. "Kamiya-san."
She turned at the sound of her name. "Yes?"
"Go ahead."
"Pardon me?" She questioned, not sure of what she was suddenly allowed to do.
"I know you miss training. Just this once, its okay. They all know who you are anyhow." He reached to a rack of practice swords and handed her a bokken.
She took it for him and stepped down into the courtyard. "I will show you a real fight."
Kenshin eyed her strangely but took a fighting stance anyway, this time using a bokken handed to him by another man.
Kaoru pulled on her kimono, making it looser in various spots, glaring at the men making eyes at the same time. She took her own budo stance and waited for his attack.
He came in slow to her left side with a swing shoulder which was easily deflected and countered with a playful smack to his temple. Kaoru advanced in further with a strike to his collar bone which he nearly didn't escape. She proceeded with a series of quick attacks that forced Kenshin to step back each time to avoid them.
Kaoru was becoming frustrated with his lack of offense and wondered why the man had suddenly become such a passive fighter. To test her theory she went for a simple move that she knew could be countered by a Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu move. He avoided it as expected and didn't try the counter. Instead this opened him up to a shot in the chin with the hilt of Kaoru's sword, one of her more predictable moves.
After the hit, the fight began to take a different path. Upon impact, Kenshin flipped back through the air and landed on his feet taking his Battojutsu stance. He charged at her and she did the same. Their wooden swords met with a crash and both shattered at contact.
Both hitokiri stared at their splintered off sword hilts.
"Interesting."
~
"Do you know what why I let you fight him?"
Kaoru shook her head. "I suppose to put on a show." She said without any particular emotion to gauge his response.
Katsura only stared straight forward on their current course.
"Then there was something you wanted to see in Kenshin's fighting. To see if he's changed at all, because of what happened."
"I'm sure you noticed his hesitation." Katsura sat them down on a bench a little further down where they could still see the courtyard in the distance.
"Perhaps he was taking it easy on me because he knows I am not allowed to train. He didn't think I would be ready. He did get serious later." Kaoru rationalized, sounding like Kenshin herself.
"Possibly. But you know as well as I that Kenshin has never lost faith in your abilities. So it's unlikely that that was his reasoning." Katsura paused for a moment thinking through the rest of his idea. "What is more likely is his two selves are no longer separate." He stared into the distance as he said this, but returned his attention to his young assassin after her prolonged silence. "I have a story for you."
"When I first received Kenshin from an acquaintance of mine, he told me something that I have never and will never forget. He told me 'Be pure if you are to raise his as your own', because when I took him in, he was only a pure young boy with raw talent. I knew that being a hitokiri would eventually corrupt that purity in him, and soon he would drive himself mad with conflict." Katsura sighed, remembering the times. He looked up at her and took her hand. "And then you came. Also another young spirit with raw talent. Both of you were so pure, so idealistic. Don't argue with me, you were very pure, even if you pretend to be the rough and tumble young lady, you were indeed very innocent, and still are. Deeply rooted in your ideas and beliefs. Kenshin and yourself both came to me with the idea that you were coming to protect people, using your swords to protect. Somehow that ideal has remained intact all these years, and neither of you became the bloodthirsty murderers that we feared. I have you to thank for that. Somehow you have managed to keep Kenshin's inner murderer at bay, only allowing him in when the time is right. The Battousai stalks only when you allow him to, only when you allow yourself to become the Karasu."
Katsura stood up and went to the railing where he could better see the courtyard where Kenshin trained. "But something has changed. Now Kenshin and Battousai are beginning to merge. The moment he killed that woman, it was Kenshin doing the killing. He was feeling sympathy, something the Battousai doesn't know. Now the two personas have contaminated each other. When he was fighting you, he saw a woman dressed in a house kimono." He gestured at her clothing which indeed was woman's attire. "He fought you using Kenshin's mindset, the one that feels sympathy, guilt, and love. But once he came to realize you yourself are also an assassin, his demeanor changed, and the Battousai took over."
Kaoru thought his words through, battling them with every other rational theory in her head, as well as some irrational ones. What he said made sense, but what was the point. "So what?" She finally asked when no conclusion had been reached. "What does this mean? Kenshin cannot be an assassin anymore? He will start breaking down?"
Katsura shook his head. "Lets not underestimate Himura. He will fight it. His principles are still strong and he will continue his job, but he will always feel guilt. There is nothing we can do about that."
"Then why the show? Why tell me all this if there is nothing I can do for him?" Kaoru fiddled with the sleeves of her kimono, which seemed like the only outlet for her confusion and frustration at the moment.
Katsura smiled at this, seeing it as evidence of their love. She couldn't bear to be helpless when it came to Kenshin. It was the first time she ever saw her fidget because she was uncomfortable. "I am telling you because you can support him. Nurture Kenshin, and don't let it spread any further. It's unlikely, but we don't want Kenshin to start enjoying bloodshed. It is more likely he will continue to feel guilt about his crimes, but help him deal with it. Help him stay pure."
Kaoru nodded. She wasn't sure how she was to accomplish this task; keeping Kenshin pure. But she was determined to do it. She was determined not to lose him.
"There is
another reason I told you this." Katsura added after they had been silent for long
moments. "Preventative
purposes. Now that you know what
can happen, prevent it in happening in you.
Your purity is great Kaoru-chan. I would hate to see you lose that. The job you do saves lives, whether or not
you can see that now. The morals you
came to me with still hold true, and you have never betrayed yourself. Don't let yourself forget that Karasu is just a job.
She is not you." He gave her a
gentle pat on the hand and left her to ponder over his words.
TBC
